Thailand Bidding for World EXPO in 2020

Here’s another “it makes no sense to me” issue. Thailand is in the process of bidding to host the 2020 World EXPO. Yesterday the cabinet approved the Deputy Prime Minister’s proposal to nominate Ayutthaya as the World EXPO site. Ayutthaya will therefore compete with many better-known cities such as Sao Paolo, Guangzhou, Copenhagen, Ankara, Cape Town and Dubai. The United States will propose a multi-city approach and Brisbane is also a key contender.

The Thailand Convention Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) reported that Ayutthaya could draw 36.99 million visitors and generate expo income (tickets and sponsorship) of 61.84 billion baht if it is chosen to host the event. There would also be a multiplier effect on the provincial economy of up to 194.39 billion baht during the event, according to the TCEB.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/230322/ayutthaya-to-be-nominated-as-world-expo-site

36.99 million visitors? I'm curious. Why, I wonder 36.99? Why not 37? Or even 36.5? Does it make the number seem more credible? I’d love to get a look at their research statistics. Perhaps the TCEB might recall that back in 2000, Hanover had only a slightly higher estimate of 40 million visitors for its EXPO. How many actually attended? Around 10 million!

Perhaps the government itself should also pay more attention to the statistics from the EXPO in Shanghai last year. This attracted more than 70 million people, of whom 95% were reckoned to be from the domestic market. Not surprising considering Shanghai has around 20 million residents, many of them reasonably well-off, and a catchment area of many hundreds of millions within hours of the city. It’s also far wealthier than Thailand. So, spending roughly US$4.2 billion on the EXPO itself and another estimated US$50 billion (yes, billion!) in upgrading Shanghai’s infrastructure posed no problems. Then, Shanghai was able to recruit a veritable army of volunteers – 72,000 working within the site itself and another 100,000 placed around the city to assist visitors.

In the face of such awesome numbers, why on earth is Thailand even considering hosting an EXPO? Does the government not remember that of recent EXPOS, Seville in 1992 lost US$300 million, Lisbon in 1998 lost US$500 million, and Hanover in 2000 lost a whopping US$1 billion!

The Prime Minister of the day will no doubt echo the words of then-Chancellor Gerhardt Schroder: "the value of the World Exposition in Hanover should not and could not be measured in money." Tell that to all the poor farmers in Thailand!